These kickass women are showing off their beautiful summer bodies with the most powerful messages

Social media was once a breeding ground for people fixated with making their lives appear a lot less glossy than reality behind their filtered snaps.

But, thankfully, the #humblebrags that once populated our Instagram feeds have been replaced with a refreshing take on reality. Whether it’s women showing off their filter-free bodies or bloggers revealing the truth behind their deceiving snaps, we have so much time for it.

That’s why we’re loving these kickass women who are embracing their natural bodies on their holidays this summer – and showing the world on social media.

Women from around the world have been taking to Instagram to showcase their bodies in all their beautiful glory with some seriously inspiring captions.

Here are some of our favourites that are guaranteed to make you feel good and inspire you to live your best life on the beach this summer…

1. @hantisedeloubli

2. @nadiaaboulhosn

3. @the_huntswoman

4. @effyourbeautystandards

5. @mynameisjessamyn

I don’t aspire to be a role model. I aspire to be a person who doesn’t hate herself. I’m not trying to inspire anyone. I’m a hot mess- the fuck do I look like, trying to “inspire” someone else? Gimme a break. Frankly, I’m confused as to when we stopped looking in the mirror for our heroes and started lookin’ for ‘em on the internet. Sure, I’m glad that more people are exploring yoga and trying not to say shitty things about their bodies. And if my messy ass IG account has something to do with this new trend, then I guess that’s cool, too. But prepare to be disappointed because I’m extremely complicated, rude, aggressive, and I hold very polarizing opinions. And if someone chooses to be disappointed in me bc my behavior doesn’t mimic what they need in their own life, that’s just gotta be their cross to bear. A bitch can only worry about being her own hero- look in the mirror and find your own goddamn inspiration. #yoga @justincookphoto literally made me take this thotty ass picture and he was so dedicated to the cause that my dude pop, lock, & dropped it in front of this very Mack truck just to make sure I fully understood what he wanted me to do. Never will I ever forget the time that JUSTIN.COOK. dropped his ass for me and @lisa_lisa_creative’s enjoyment. @alexboerner , you know you loved it too.) This bathing suit is @gabifresh x @swimsuitsforall and it’s the cat’s pajamas. Photo by @justincookphoto Creative Direction by @lisa_lisa_creative Makeup by @pinkdiamondstl (EDIT- I ❤ @dansko but these babies are @clarksshoes )

A post shared by Jessamyn (@mynameisjessamyn) on Jun 4, 2018 at 2:05pm PDT

6. @charlihoward

7. @enjoythej0urney

To you, these two photos might not look very different. To me, they looked extremely different 3 and a half years ago. At this point, I see far less of a difference. But I can notice exactly what areas are manipulated because they were what I was most insecure about with my body. I used to be so particular about the length of my torso. It felt so short and close together, and I thought that if I could just somehow fix the bone structure of my body, all of my problems would be solved. But I knew that would never happen, so I turned to applications on my phone. No one ever questioned whether or not the photo on the right was real. They never saw the picture on the left. And I had people call me out in early high school about photoshopping my pictures. I’ve been so tech-y since I was young, and I figured out how to edit certain aspects of a picture far before there were apps to make it easy. When I was called out, I had done really poor jobs with editing, using blur tools. By this point, I was a pro. And there were phone apps for it. This is one of the few photos where I also kept the original. I usually deleted it so that if anyone went through my phone, they wouldn’t see the two back to back and know that I was editing my body. This post isn’t for me to point out my own distorted body image, though. It’s to make the point that so many people make subtle, nearly unnoticeable changes to their photos to fit societal beauty standards. I always made sure to never go “over the top”; I tried to keep it realistic looking so no one would question it. I’ve never admitted to photo manipulation in the past by using real images from when I was doing it, and if you’re the same way too, I get it. I have a lot of shame around it, especially because that body on the left was already privileged, albeit being disabled. This post might anger some people, might look like I’m seeking validation, and might make a lot of people roll their eyes, but for anyone who needs to hear it: Even the people you look up to in your recovery used to do things like this. We are not flawless, we lived deceptive lives, and were ignorant at points in our lives. It’s okay if that’s where you are.